Week 3-
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” (November 9-15)
The article "Concept to Classroom' discusses the theory of constructivism and why it is important to shift our educational practices from the teacher to the students. Basically constructivism is the study of learning within our world. Students become the experts in their own learning by collaborating with others to solve problems. The concept of constructivism focuses on real-world concepts through investigation, questioning, and creating products. Students are experimenting, reflecting, and interacting to gain their knowledge through a process of learning. The traditional classroom differs from this theory because the curriculum comes from textbooks, repetition, memorizing, and testing. Teachers import knowledge to the student without much interaction between other peers. The benefits of this approach are that the students are actively engaged, they have ownership of their learning, and are learning authentic application.
I think most educators today are transforming in one way or another into using this top-down approach. Students are learning to ask more questions, work cooperatively, and are assessed by a variety of techniques. In my classroom, it is very easy to use the constructivist practice because it is a technology course. Students are not in a setting where they have to feel the pressure of a "standardized test" and they feel they have more freedom to explore their own ideas and be creative. All of my lessons are project-based with very little teacher instruction and most of my students learn by doing and exploring. I do think my students get frustrated with me because I do not give them direct answers. I make them search/investigate on their own until they find out how to do something. As a teacher it is hard to not give them the answer and be done and move on. It takes WAY more time to tell them "try this, or what about this, keep looking, it's okay to make mistakes, or what other options are there?". The constructivist approach does make my students better thinkers and creators, but I do feel like the lower-level students struggle more with being on their own independently. Not all students have the basic background skills and they tend to get very frustrated with having to investigate everything. It is almost too much for them to handle and they need more direct instruction.
Needs Assessment:
We have met and discussed several times about our needs assessment and survey. We think there are too many questions for the students to answer. Most middle school students will put random answers down if it is too long! We have tried to edit it down, but then vital pieces are missing so we kept it as is. Hopefully the students will take this seriously!
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
(November 9-15)
The article "Concept to Classroom' discusses the theory of constructivism and why it is important to shift our educational practices from the teacher to the students. Basically constructivism is the study of learning within our world. Students become the experts in their own learning by collaborating with others to solve problems. The concept of constructivism focuses on real-world concepts through investigation, questioning, and creating products. Students are experimenting, reflecting, and interacting to gain their knowledge through a process of learning. The traditional classroom differs from this theory because the curriculum comes from textbooks, repetition, memorizing, and testing. Teachers import knowledge to the student without much interaction between other peers. The benefits of this approach are that the students are actively engaged, they have ownership of their learning, and are learning authentic application.
I think most educators today are transforming in one way or another into using this top-down approach. Students are learning to ask more questions, work cooperatively, and are assessed by a variety of techniques. In my classroom, it is very easy to use the constructivist practice because it is a technology course. Students are not in a setting where they have to feel the pressure of a "standardized test" and they feel they have more freedom to explore their own ideas and be creative. All of my lessons are project-based with very little teacher instruction and most of my students learn by doing and exploring. I do think my students get frustrated with me because I do not give them direct answers. I make them search/investigate on their own until they find out how to do something. As a teacher it is hard to not give them the answer and be done and move on. It takes WAY more time to tell them "try this, or what about this, keep looking, it's okay to make mistakes, or what other options are there?". The constructivist approach does make my students better thinkers and creators, but I do feel like the lower-level students struggle more with being on their own independently. Not all students have the basic background skills and they tend to get very frustrated with having to investigate everything. It is almost too much for them to handle and they need more direct instruction.
Needs Assessment:
We have met and discussed several times about our needs assessment and survey. We think there are too many questions for the students to answer. Most middle school students will put random answers down if it is too long! We have tried to edit it down, but then vital pieces are missing so we kept it as is. Hopefully the students will take this seriously!
... and the journey continues